chore: use yalc for package link and unlink

[mikemurray]

Resolves #6248
Impact: minor
Type: feature|chore

MERGE FIRST (node-dev image updates) = reactioncommerce/docker-base#31

Issue

package-unlink seems to unlink more packages than it should. This, plus issues with package-link itself linking packages, but not properly resolving dependencies which leads to code & tests passing locally, then failing on CI.

Solution

Use yalc instead of npm link.

Command breakdown

Linking

Link all packages found in yalc-packages where path/to/package=true
Unlink all packages found in yalc-packages where path/to/package=false

./bin/package-link

Link a new package & update an existing package when you've made changes

./bin/package-link @reactioncommerce/api-plugin-accounts

Unlinking

Unlink a package, run npm install, and re-link previously linked packages

./bin/package-unlink @reactioncommerce/api-plugin-accounts

Updating

Update linked packages based on the entries from the yalc.lock file. If you stopped and started the API container, this will re-link everything.

./bin/package-update

Breaking changes

None, but...

You should destroy your containers and start fresh. Since this is a dev tool, it won't break dependency management otherwise.

Testing

1. Checkout the reaction-development-platform
2. Follow setup instructions namely make init and make clone-api-plugin
3. run the API
4. cd reaction
5. ./bin/package-link @reactioncommerce/api-core or any api plugin in the api-plugins directory
6. See the package is installed and running
7. Make the ping query in a GraphQL playgorund (http://localhost:3000/graphql) to see pong
8. Make a change or something. I edited src/graphql/resolvers/index.js and changed ping to ping: () => "pong TEST"
9. run ./bin/package-link @reactioncommerce/api-core again to update
10. run the ping query and see pong TEST
11. unlink with ./bin/package-unlink @reactioncommerce/api-core
12. run the ping query again, and you should only see pong

---

1. run ./bin/package-link without any arguments
2. see all packages are linked
3. edit yalc-packages
4. set some packages to false
5. run ./bin/package-link again
6. verify that those packages are removed

[mpaktiti]

Nice! 🚢

[mikemurray]

@mpaktiti Need a re-review please! 😄

I added a yalc-packages.exmaple file that is automatically copied (if it doesn't exist) and read when running ./bin/package-link without any arguments.

This allows for bulk linking of api plugins and should be even more of a help when testing multiple changed packages. package-link will still work normally if you want to do one at a time though.

I also removed the yalc check/install code because it was actually checking your local machine for yalc instead of the container. I made a new node-dev image that has yalc pre-installed here: reactioncommerce/docker-base#31

[manueldelreal]

LGTM

[almousa1990]

Works great with reaction plugins.

I am not sure if this is the right place to ask, but is there any way to link custom packages? as i understand, packages are loaded from package.json, i tried to do package-link @reaction/custom-plugin, then added this plugin in package.json. However, it doesn't seem to able to locate it.

[almousa1990]

I got it, yalc publish on plugin folder did the trick